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Luke
Adventurer from Origin Earth, and a prominent member of Gongshow:Gaiden. Training Carom Drain Darkblast Whitehand Given an ornamental Mace by a priest of Orzhov. Acquired a Stormtrooper Blaster. Experiments to Come Combining Darkblast with White Mana and the concepts from Drain to get something like Zealous Persecution) Attempt to copy Mark's Summon to summon black or white aligned non-sentient creatures (black examples: Fume Spitter, Mortician Beetle, Cadaver Imp, white examples: Glint Hawk, Loam Lion, Darklit Gargoyle - these are just random examples) Attempt to negate debuffs with White Mana (Disenchant) and combine with Black Mana to both disenchant and do damage (Mortify) Try to build a positive energy shield to prevent oncoming damage (Ethereal Haze) Beseech the source of power (see above) for additional power in an emergency (Dark Ritual) Attempt to Carom an ally's attack so that it doesn't miss. Attempt to combine abilities with Mark (most similar), then Steve, then Chris, then Topher and see what happens. Infuse weapon with White/Black mana, hoping to get "holy"/"unholy" damage when needed. Pillory of the Sleepless Circle of Protection w/ Mark Attempt to copy Topher's Fire Sheath using Black Mana (Death's Shadow?) or White Mana (any of a number of 'holy' enchantments, *shrug*) Since a hand is a complex object to shape from pure Mana, perhaps use that trick to shape other things - Weapons? (Edge of the Divinity?) Wings as a mobility spell? An arm connecting to Whitehand, allowing me to pull myself onto ledges from greater distances? Luke's Thoughts Chapter 1 (Sirmills - this is my 'memory' of my trip to the towers - I would've been living on my own (ie: not in the towers) at the time, and thus walking to the towers, probably with nothing more than the clothes I had on, my wallet, and my backpack with some CS books in it to work on at the party. I don't honestly recall if I had a cell phone at the time or not. We'll assume I didn't, or just forgot it at home.) "Shit, they never tell me about things more than an hour in advance. Ah well, might as well make my way to the towers to join in the fun.", I thought to myself. So off I went, on my usual stroll through the city to campus. I'd made the trip many times before, but this time was different. At first, I thought the lack of cars on the road just meant that there was a football game on or something - never really cared about that stuff. I thought I saw Topher's car on the street heading west, but his car's so common it really could have been anyone. Then the rats started showing up and swarming the roads. "Better stay off the streets, take the back roads, sneak through people's backyards when possible.", I realized. This meant it took me a lot longer than I had initially planned to get to campus. By then, Topher and the others would surely be back. Now within a kilometer of campus, I realized there were a lot fewer rats, but these were big ones. Someone had a serious pest problem. They were all heading towards campus, so I thought it would be wise to arm myself, so I did ... at the local gas station ... with a squeegee. Shit. Time to run. So I sprinted across campus and finally reached the towers. After pausing to catch a breath, I saw Topher's car haphazardly parked in front with dozens of rat corpses in the bumper. "That's Topher for you, go big or go home. Literally, in his case." When I got into the tower, there was a rug missing. More accurately, a couple circular pieces of rug cut from a whole. "This is the only one messed with, so maybe someone decided to wear it in a drunken stupor. Nobody's crazy enough to use a carpet to fight giant rats ... right?" There were also dead bodies (with nothing on them after a quick search), it was surprising how roughed up they were from the rats. Yuck. They don't look familiar, though, and I couldn't save them, so I'd better at least get to my friends. I hit the elevator button. Naturally, it took a long time to come down from the 11th floor. "Maybe they're holed up up there..." Waiting impatiently, I didn't notice the rat until it bit me. I cursed, then hit it with the squeegee as hard as I could, killing it in a wet, bloody mess. "Ding!" The elevator had finally come to the main floor. Naturally, it shows up a minute too late. It's almost like a movie or something... I got in the elevator and paced inside until I heard a ding on the 11th floor. I stepped out and... Boom. Chapter 2 Next thing I knew, I was falling on my ass. Ow. But when I looked around and saw that I wasn't in the tower anymore, but in an Orzhov church, I was certain I was dreaming. My suspicions of my unconscious state were confirmed when the priest, alone in the church, had proclaimed I was the messiah. This was nothing new to me, of course. I was basking in my freshly-stroked ego when Mark showed up and made me come out of my stupor. Damn, that was short-lived. We were told by the priest that two powerful mages were outside battling for dominance and tearing up the place. He gave me a mace and Mark retrieved a quarterstaff from the wall. Mark and I stepped outside, and it didn't take us long to realize that the two mages were none other than Garruk Wildspeaker and Liliana Vess. Shit. Then Verdant Force was summoned by Garruk. Double shit. Clearly, Garruk didn't need our help, and it was far easier in our inexperienced eyes to simply let the mages fight it out. After all, we had no magic of our own. Then we saw the 'real-life' version of the M:TG graveyard, where old spells go to die. Mark was closer to Garruk's graveyard, and I was closer to Liliana's. Honestly, that's the only reason that I initially went for it. This is how I got my 'training' in now-crude versions of Drain Life and Carom. I found it very strange that Liliana had access to any white mana - why would she have Carom at all? No matter, I had it now, so I could redirect damage from an attacker back upon itself. Great, in theory. In practice, it was too difficult to pull off on the fly at this stage because I couldn't move into position and cast it in one movement. Really, the only option was Drain. I could move and cast it in one go, and it healed me to boot! How could any new messiah argue with that? Then Liliana ran into the church, ceasing our non-involvement. I used Drain to take out a summoned creature, maybe even the Verdant Force. I don't remember now, but it's unimportant. We fought as hard as we could, but tragically, the priest had been killed by Liliana in her search for the stone. Garruk killed her for us, or so we thought. Seems she had sent a shadow clone, or something similar in her place. At this point, my new life had been made clear. Pacifism is weakness. Weakness is death. I would do what it took to survive. I apparently had a connection to black mana, and the Drain Life spell. This would be my greatest asset in this new life. Mark had learned to summon creatures himself, and to use a crude version of Giant Growth. So he's got green and very possibly white mana, given what I knew of his background. I had white as well, which was unsurprising, but black mana was a surprise. It even seemed easier to call upon than white... I remember a story in the M:TG universe about a white-aligned mage being reluctantly taught red magic by being tasked to light a fire in an arctic campsite. He focused all his energy on his adopted mountain homes, but his subconscious took him to his original home on the plains instead, every time. He ended up lighting the fire with a massive phoenix of holy light, attracting enemies to the camp. Was I in the same situation? Where was my subconscious going when I used black mana? There are sloughs, dugouts and small swamps on the old man's property - which seemed like the most obvious source of black to me. Mark didn't have any more insight than I did into this. Still, at some point, I would have to learn from his abilities and he'd have to learn from mine. We wanted to investigate the stone Liliana had been after and both of us touched it at the same time. That made us vanish from Ravnica, far earlier than we wanted to... Chapter 3 We appeared in a circle in the ground, in the middle of a forest clearing. Chris, Topher and Steve were there and we excitedly described our stories of what happened to each other. It now appeared that time passes differently on different planes. Steve had an incredibly useful healing spell, which I would need to learn from at some point, should Drain turn out to not be enough. He also had Magic Missile, and I wondered when he would attack the darkness. I also wondered if being able to use D&D healing spells meant you could use white mana as well. Topher could teleport, or so he claimed, and could wrap himself in flames. His abilities weren't really my style, but what really bothered me was their source. It was clear that he was in the Harry Potter universe, but there was no indication he'd be using 'Latin' incantations any time soon. So where'd they come from? More importantly, he looked fantastic - he'd lost at least 200 pounds ... somehow. It's either intriguing or suspicious, I wasn't sure which. Finally, Chris could use 'chaotic' energy from something called 'the Logrus'. His story only barely made sense because it was Chris telling it. If it was anyone else, I would have called BS right away. Further, he received actual training in swordfighting and first aid kit usage. That would come in handy. While we told our stories, we realized we had memories of the 'next' 4 years from 2006 to late 2010. I learned I would have a strange adventure with some chick named Kat, and that the relationship went down in hilarious flames. I learned a little about the Chinese martial art Meihuazhuang. It's not a combative art at first, but it's basic stances each have an affiliation with the five Chinese elements: Metal, Earth, Water, Fire and Wood. I doubted that this would be important, at least at first. We made our way to a village of Munchkins - clearly, we had come to Oz. We then learned that Kendric, Nathan and James had at least survived thus far - great! Further, we learned that planeswalkers had come through the next town. This could be worrying - what if Nicol Bolas or Sorin Markov showed up? So we carried on to the next town and discovered that James had left with people sounding like adventurers (they would need a planeswalker to really go anywhere, or so I thought). So we left to go see the Wizard of Oz. We passed by an orchard with living apple trees. As is the thing for Topher to do, he threw a rock at them. We quickly fought our way running through them, grabbing delicious apples on the way. Finally managed to use Carom here to redirect an apple back at the tree that threw it. Neat! Next, we encountered a field of sleeping flowers that made everyone in the group besides Chris drowsy - strange. Not much I could do about this now, and the group agreed to ignore it for the moment. Maybe the Wizard would have a better idea of what was going on. We made our way into the Emerald Palace and met the Wizard. He asked us to kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Shouldn't be too difficult with our new powers. Not like we had a lot of choice in the matter. On our way to the Witch's castle, we were attacked by small monkey creatures (naturally). They were no small matter, but for the first time, I drained the last life from living creatures. I could get used to this power. What a rush it was to take their lives as my own, it made me laugh out loud both times. We got to the castle, but had no way of sneaking in that we could think of from our cove until we were ambushed. We easily dispatched the soldiers and took their uniforms as disguises and new 'armor'. Finally, we met the Witch in battle, with four of her soldiers also fighting against us. Again, I drained the last of a soldier's life. Awesome. Mark managed to kill the Witch with a waterskin from his owl. The rest of us just frantically tried to get to her through the soldiers and failed miserably. Broom, Hat and Robe in hand, we argued about what to do with them. Naturally, we would take the Broom to the Wizard. The Hat and Robe were obviously powerful, and Topher wanted to use the Hat for himself. I was also tempted, I must admit, but that power was unnecessary with the spells I would develop, I thought. We finally decided to hide the Hat in case it was necessary, or sell it to the Wizard. The robe would be burnt at the nearest opportunity. When we got to the Wizard, the first thing that Chris said was an offer to sell the hat to him. Personally, I think we should have let him have it right then and there, and take all the power we could get. What could go wrong by letting the Wizard have the hat too? Except the Wizard turned out to be the Joker - shit. Mark and Steve fought against this powerful man, with a FUCKING GUN. This seemed pretty dumb to me. Chris and I stayed back, and more importantly, not shot. Topher again experimented with a random teleportation at the worst possible time. The Joker-Wizard then took the hat, and became the Joker-Wizard-Witch. This would not end well, and I knew then that the Joker would be a persistent enemy and someone I would have to help defeat. Unlike Steve, I didn't think we needed Batman to take him out, we just needed more of our own power. Besides, Batman wouldn't use powers from another universe, I'm sure. Certainly nothing as powerful as the dark magics Joker and I had learned about. Mark and Topher duked it out a bit after, Mark thought that the hat should've stayed with us, or burnt. The others rushed off to the hospital while I searched the place. I found an ancient spellbook that the Witch had owned, and kept it hidden in my backpack. This surely would be something I could use. A black mage reading another's book should be simple...right? By the time the others got back, Topher and I managed to fix the Wizard's balloon so we could take off. Chapter 4 We made it to the next world ... barely. Storm hit us, balloon nearly destroyed, Mark disappearing on the Witch's Broom. Good times. Once we recovered, we managed to hide the balloon and try to make our way to civilization to trade for thread or cloth or something to repair it. On the way, Chris grabbed a piece of broken brick ... for some reason. Not sure if the reason he's grabbing random crap all the time is because he's gone through the Logrus or because he's Chris. Not much difference, really. We came to a village with a castle. At a glance, it at least looked like we were on a plane with civilization of some kind. Great, we should be able to trade. Then we realized that the castle was Peach's castle from the Mushroom Kingdom, and that the village had been thoroughly burninated. Shit. Did Bowser make a habit of attacking civilians in the games and burninating their villages? Not that I can recall. This was probably a bad sign - if this is the standard Mario universe, there will be a lot of platforming challenges. Topher can teleport, Mark now had the Witch's broom - wherever he went, anyway, and Steve and Chris are reasonably athletic. This wasn't going to end well for me, I was certain. I wondered if my powers could lead to some sort of 'mobility spell'. Speed was out of the question as that's blue and red, not white or black. Teleportation is a hell of a thing, and Topher can barely use it without bleeding himself out. Flight is an option for white/black by getting some sort of (fallen ) angel wings, but how would I get to there from the powers I have now? I'd need to think about this one and experiment somewhat. At this point, my thinking was still constrained by M:TG. Moving along, we went back along the path to see if another village hadn't been burninated, or if there were survivors or something. On the way, we saw a green pipe covered by branches and brush. Well, good to know that those were still around, I guess. Down we go! We made our way across a dangerous platforming challenge, somehow. Surprisingly, it was less difficult than I initially feared. (Sirmills - if memory serves, I had good rolls until Bowser's castle for platforming, and this is where I saved Chris and Steve from spikes/falls) I even managed to save Steve from a spike pit, which was surprising. He'd definitely owe me for that. Soon we came upon a small room with Mario, drunk and passed out. I thought it best not to disturb a hero, especially if he might think that my powers were evil. Most weaker minds do think that Drain is evil, but I by now saw the ability to drain life as my greatest asset. I was uniquely ... understanding enough in our group that the ability to save myself by draining the life from an enemy was simply pragmatic to me. It's not like the enemy wouldn't drain my life to save himself if he thought it would help him. Unsurprisingly, Topher decided to wake up Mario while Steve and I searched the room for clues and supplies. Lots of booze and food. Why wasn't I surprised that Mario was a boozer? The others thought it would be a good idea to talk to Mario while he was barely conscious. I thought it better to let sleeping dogs lie, especially ones that could probably take us out without very much effort. Topher's bad Italian imitation wasn't helping. After letting Mario nap to sober up, he woke up full of energy. Seems sober enough, but he can sure put it away. As we headed out, Mario explained that once again, Bowser had 8 boss minions with keys to his castle. Shocking. At least there wasn't much indication that the Mushroom Kingdom had been corrupted by outside forces yet. Bowser was ... a concern that we'd need to deal with soon. We had at least 8 more fights to improve our powers. The first boss was a giant beetle. I didn't recall which game or level he was from, but fair enough. Mario immediately jumped into the fray ... and straight into the beast's mouth. Looks like he wasn't all that sober after all. On the downside, we had lost an incredibly valuable ally. On the upside, I had lost a potential enemy that may have been unnerved by our abilities, especially Drain. I'd have to remember to keep my black mana hidden from allies outside our group unless the situation really got bad. In the meantime, we had enemies to fight and my powers could be unrestrained. Most of us tried to get to the back of the beetle's head from its back. Chris' training in fighting meant that he was best suited to fight the beetle straight on and try to keep it from hitting the rest of us. I used Drain on the beetle's weak point and hit it a few times, but Chris managed to kill it straight up with his sword in its mouth. Very nice. We got the first key and headed to a warp zone. Wasn't expecting that, the warp zones are usually quite hidden in the games. Oh well. As is traditional, we took the last one, hoping to skip some of the bosses. We ended up on a stone platform, with everything seemingly made of stone. Surely, we'd encounter Thwomps soon. Only the largest Womp of all appeared, a massive stone wall that came to life. Could I drain a being made of stone? There was only one way to find out. It was, after all, alive. Luckily for me, it did work, once the Womp King fell forward, exposing his weakness and allowing us to climb upon his back. So I can apparently drain things that are alive, even if they're made of stone. Nice. After a short battle with him and his spawn (one of which I drained completely. Excellent), we defeated the Womp King. Again, we went to the last warp pipe behind the Womp King's room and again, we appeared in a closed off, stone hall. First thing we encountered was a bob-omb. Crap, crap, crap. Drain was a touch attack at this point, so I couldn't use it against a bob-omb safely. Steve and Chris were fine for the task for now, but I definitely would need a ranged attack to deal with things like this in the future. Next, we found a giant Bob-omb with a crown sleeping on a throne. There wasn't much I could do safely against a regular bob-omb, let alone a king Bob-omb. This boss was beyond my ken, but this was the reason we had two ranged attackers in our group. Apparently this line of reasoning escaped Topher, who charged in anyway. Unfortunately, the ranged attacks from Chris and Steve took the crown off his head, then lit the wick. The king was naturally furious, and charged straight to Chris as the rest of us fled the room. Brave one, he is. He cut the wick and it flipped in the air, relighting the rest of the wick. Shiiiiiiiit. At least the key survived, along with a warp pipe. Come to think of it, it always seemed odd that very little could actually damage the pipes in the games. Oh well. We also had only encountered bob-ombs and thwomps as regular Mario enemies. What happened to the goombas, the koopas, and those fucking spiky guys? To The Camp! Through the pipe, we found a small camp of koopas. Mark, it turned out, had been camping out with them the whole time after crash landing nearby. In the mean time, he'd figured out how to use the Witch's broom a bit. Sweet, another mobility technique in our group. But why were these koopas starving and hiding away from their own boss? We soon found out from the oddly elderly Magikoopa, who had been leading their group, that Bowser had changed somehow (gee, you think?) and had cannibalized the koopas. Huh. I also learned how to better redirect the effects of white and black mana, meaning I could redirect the lifeforce drained by my drain life spell and the damage redirected by Carom. Perfect. If I can redirect the path of an attack, maybe I can form mana into a shape that I can control. I'd have to think on that one. We had 5 bosses left to fight. The most important parts of our time in the Mushroom Kingdom were those battles, so I will try to be brief about the rest of the story. We made our way up a giant pyramid and across some panels to a monster consisting of two hands with eyes in their palms. I was grabbed at one point and managed to Drain its eye directly, at point blank range. It then dropped me, making the effort far easier than trying to wriggle free. We soon defeated the creature and got another key. Through the next pipe we came into an industrial castle. After struggling through a line of fireball-shooting turrets, we rested for a while. As one of the party members downed by a fireball, it definitely hurt, and thinking back on it, I wonder why I didn't use Carom to save myself. I would need to remember to use it more often, and use it in more ways. (Sirmills - I'm just throwing this bit in for flavor, I know it didn't happen in the session, but hey, what the hell.) While we rested, I took a short nap. This was the first of my nightmares that happened after I gained power. Our group had come into an arctic landscape, and were, for once, prepared, with winter clothing, camping supplies, and so on. We were hunting for something or someone and started to lose hope. After long hours of searching, we came across a grisly scene. Blood had been splattered in six directions from a central point, and at that point laid Mark. His staff was broken, the Broom was missing, and his clothes were soaked with frozen blood. It was at this point I realized that the Broom was in my hand, and the rest of the group was looking at me expectingly with tears in their eyes. I used it to fly above the scene, and this is what I saw: After I described the scene to the group from above, the next thing I saw was a Chaos Bolt (or was it a Magic Missile?) flying in my direction. That's when I woke up, before the rest of the group did. I made sure to keep this dream to myself because I knew that the only spell that did that was an M:TG black spell . We moved along to the next room in silence. The next boss was a giant robot rising from a huge 20ft pit. Shit, a robot, too far away to Drain, and unlikely a Drain-able target anyway. Couldn't really use Carom against the giant Bullet Bills either. We managed to turn the bullets back at the robot, and Chris tried to attack the robot from behind. Chris fell off the robot's back and landed in its hand (strangely lucky). Once we defeated the robot, Topher fell from its shoulder and Mark couldn't save him with the Broom, so Topher tried to teleport a third time. He disappeared, and Chris appeared to be in great pain. It was hard to tell why this happened from a great distance. This fight made me realize that I needed another attack spell that didn't require Drainability. My nightmare made me think that it should be a black spell. Through the next pipe was a lava-filled cave, with a mesh net hanging overhead. Naturally, we climbed along the mesh to a large room with a cage full of Goombas. After fighting the Robot, these goombas didn't seem like much of a threat. Once the Giant Centipede showed up and ate several goombas, however, we saw the threat. Chris hadn't apparently gotten the memo, and blasted the centipede with several Chaos bolts at once, cutting it down to its head only. Wow. Going to need a defense against that. Apparently, Chris' vomit cleared something out of his system and helped him kick some serious ass. We quickly defeated the beast, but Topher wasn't finished. He electrified himself and put his hands on the metal cage holding the goombas. Since the rest of the group was standing on the metal mesh and I happened to be closest, I Caromed his electricity into the open air (neat effect - might want to keep that one in the back of my mind). It only helped for a second, and soon the goombas were wiped out. And so it was that we headed back to the koopa village with a new source of food. Back to the Camp! We came back to the village to discover Sarah, Topher's daughter. She had discovered how to shapeshift. This was getting truly disturbing - even a child can get powers in this new crazy multiverse? I hesitated to think of how she got this power. At this point, I realized that even if the Earth had survived, there was no possible way that life would return to normal for us. If powers were this widely spread through the Earth population, there was no telling what the political repercussions would be if the Earth had indeed survived. On the upside, this meant that at least some people who weren't near the towers had indeed survived. We stocked up in the village and slept overnight, to prepare for the last part of our journey through the Mushroom Kingdom. This time, I didn't have a nightmare ... more of a revelation. (Sirmills - again, just throwing this in for flavor) We seemed to be in modern Vancouver, and the city was being invaded by reptilian aliens. Our group was running with the civilians (blending in? or maybe running from a powerful foe?) when I saw them - the superhero group a couple of us imagined in a gaming campaign. I saw Decibal blasting aliens with a soundwave, Dr. Fubar squishing another into a gelatinous flesh cube (a favorite hobby of his), and the character I had played. John Martin, aka Riddari ("Knight"), the archeologist who discovered ancient Atlantean armor and had started to undergo the transformation into a Machination. Nanites were replacing his blood, and would grow an incomplete set of plate armor from his own hair follicles. He looked directly at me as I stared in wonder at the events occurring in front of me. Then I saw my own face in his, as the helmet was grown over his eyes, and his massive sword came into being in his hands. "Of course!", I thought. There was no reason to be restricted to M:TG abilities with my mana. I could take inspiration for new powers from one of my own creations. I thanked Riddari as my mana circulated around me, forming a black demonic wing on my left shoulder to contrast the white angelic wing on my right. I flew into the fray as a great lance grew from mixed black and white mana around my right arm, piercing the first alien that came at me through the skull. I Drained the next alien, and Caromed an energy blast from one to another. The lance, after I let it go through the initial attacker's skull, had pierced the concrete in a sidewalk and started to form a void around itself, sucking in the aliens nearby. I was too focused on my own battle to realize that the rest of my group had left me behind, no evidence that they had powers at all. Were they afraid of the battle? Of the aliens? The superheroes that had come to fight them? I doubted all of these, and realized that they were afraid of me. A sad thought to say the least. But they weren't afraid of me yet. There was still time to prove that I had no reason to turn on them. So it was that I woke up with a peaceful, hopeful heart. The next boss was a giant Piranha Plant that immediately summoned Thwomps all around it. Huh. I wasn't going to be able to get close to this thing. Sarah didn't seem to agree, and sprinted to it in the form of a badger. I barely got to a spot between the thwomps, about 10 feet from the beast. Well, getting closer to it would probably mean getting squished. I had no ranged attacks ... or did I? I took a deep breath and reached for its lifeforce with my mana. Only barely did I reach it, but now I knew. I could Drain from a distance. The next time I did it from that distance, I could breathe in its lifeforce with no difference than it would be up close. Perfect. My new power didn't give me much luck against the beast, and I, like some others in the group, was knocked unconscious. I got back up for a bit, but was knocked down once again, and didn't get up for a while. The group was too busy fighting for their lives to notice that I was indeed alive, watching the Stormtroopers and their Sith mistress (after all, why would a Jedi be working with Stormtroopers?) struggle against the beast and almost get ... something ... from Chris. I got back up, struggling to my feet. By the time I got back up, the beast was defeated, the Stormtroopers and Sarah gone and Topher facing down a small red demonic child. This couldn't go on - but I couldn't stop the fire demon from possessing him when Chris shot a Chaos Bolt at it. The situation had taken a big turn for the worse - not only was Topher now possessed, but Steve had also started going mad with misguided love or need to avenge the Sith that had shown up. He had also started getting paranoid about the Joker's influence in our new lives. On the upside, we got a Sith artifact, along with a Jedi ««artifact. On the downside, Steve had them. Would he get Force powers from the devices? Would I be able to stop him from going on a mad quest for revenge if he did? That thought stuck in my mind as we headed back to the village with the last key. We also recovered two blaster rifles (for Chris and myself), along with a set of Stormtrooper armor for Mark. Back to the Camp, this time with Feeling! Once again, we rested, and once again, I dreamed. This time, I was alone in a massive cathedral full of enemies - gargoyles, thrulls, and ghosts chasing me to the central vault of secrets. I couldn't use my powers, it felt like they had run out, and I simply couldn't fight so many anymore. Bloodied, I nearly reached my goal - an ordinary-looking rope, used to ring a bell. But this was no ordinary bell. I was in Orzhova, Church of Deals , and finally, I would have reached my goal. It wasn't to be, however, as I felt some sort of magical attack hit my back. It felt oddly familiar, but it didn't matter, because I soon felt myself coming out of body. What happened next disturbed me for quite a while afterwards... The Orzhov minions left my unconscious body alone for quite a while and cautiously approached it to make sure I was actually dead. One of the thrulls tapped my corpse's shoulder, and nothing happened. Then it turned its back, and my body stood up once again. Black mana came out of my corpse's back in a furious storm and formed into a menacing creature, the likes of which I had never seen. Not that I'd ever want to see such a thing again. The beast stood behind me and lashed out at the minions nearby, causing my corpse to mimic its actions in a sick puppet show. Was this thing the source of my black mana? I had no idea where that mana had come from, but used it to survive. Was I just feeding this beast the whole time? It raged and raged, destroying the walls. Every so often, a minion would reach my corpse and try to hurt it, which just seemed to encourage the black beast. They could do nothing against such a creature. Neither could I, but in a surprising, seemingly instinctual action, my corpse cast Drain, killing some poor thrull. This seemed to shrink the beast, surprisingly enough. I felt my spirit compelled to move back to my body, but I wasn't sure I wanted to while that beast was there. My body used Drain again, and as the minions were forced back, the beast shrunk again by the time I made it back to my body. When I was able to move again, I turned around and faced the creature. It seemed to nod and smile at me, if it could be called a smile. We had done well, and survived to boot. I woke up in a cold sweat. I had theorized about the source of my black mana for a while, and had decided there were three sources. Mark had decided that M:TG powers were tied to the lands you knew - he had white and green mana because he was from an area of plains and forests. Fair enough, and that was a possible explanation - if that were true, I should have access to white (plains), green (forests, there were a few small 'forests' around and near my birth home), and black (there was a particular grid road intersection near home with a 'swamp' on each corner). I wasn't quite satisfied with that, however. I would have a connection to black, but it wouldn't be very strong. But I was using black mana far more than white now. I had thought that mana was not only tied to land, but also to philosophy and attitude. I had thought of myself as somewhat Orzhov, protective of my small social circle, but fuck everyone else. I had some ways with money and diplomacy when I needed them. I was much more comfortable with that idea, because it meant that Drain was simply pragmatic, rather than some power trip. Which it also was. This wasn't quite right either, because it didn't seem quite right that Mark would have green, white, and now blue mana from his philosophy only. The more disturbing idea is that some external force had given us our powers - sure, we had gotten them from Liliana's and Garruk's 'graveyards', but was that intentional on their part? I doubted it. We would really need to think on this one - it could be the determining factor in our survival. (Sirmills - going off of memory for the rest of chapter 4, feel free to correct or use this material to finish off ch4) We asked the Magikoopa for any final tips about facing Bowser, but he didn't have any really good ideas for us.